Fast, actionable advice from Founders, CEOs, and Investors

Gary Swart (General Partner at Polaris Partners) Don’t make this mistake with metrics | A Founder’s NotebookFigure out the metric that matters most for your company and understand that the more you measure, the less prioritized you’ll be. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to measure everything. What I’ve learned is that in the early days, what matters most is having customers who love and use your product. Figure out the one or two best measures to determine this.

Geoffrey James (a contributing editor for Inc.com, is an author of the award-winning blog Sales Source) How many hours per week should you work to maximize your impact? | A Founder’s NotebookConventional business wisdom is that there’s a positive correlation between long work hours and employee productivity. Instead, the opposite is true. It’s now known that long work hours reduce creativity by decreasing the amount of waking hours when the mind is at rest.

Mark Suster (Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures) Do Less. More. | Bothsides of the TableSuccess often comes from doing a few things extraordinarily well and noticeably better than the competition and is measured in customer feedback, product engagement, growth in usage and ultimately in revenue growth. Do less. And do the things that you ARE doing better and with higher quality. Have a shorter to-do list with more things that are in the “done” category.

Lew Cirne (Founder & CEO at New Relic) Six chairs for an ideal meetingOne of the things I do on a quarterly basis is to review the standing meetings on my calendar, and every one of them ought to be able defend itself. The point is not to keep going to that meeting just because you always have to go. I think it’s a great practice to say, “OK, we meet every Thursday on this. Does it have to be these people every Thursday? Why?”

Gary Swart (General Partner at Polaris Partners) Don’t make this mistake with metrics | A Founder’s NotebookFigure out the metric that matters most for your company and understand that the more you measure, the less prioritized you’ll be. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to measure everything. What I’ve learned is that in the early days, what matters most is having customers who love and use your product. Figure out the one or two best measures to determine this.

Seth Godin (Founder at Yoyodyne Entertainment) Seth’s Blog: Big questions before little onesDon’t finalize the logo before you come up with a business plan that works.
Don’t spend a lot of time thinking about your vacation policy before you have a product that people actually want to buy.

Slava Akhmechet (Founder at RethinkDB) 57 startup lessonsWorking on the wrong thing for a month is equivalent to not showing up to work for a month at all.

Tomasz Tunguz (Partner at Redpoint Ventures) Startup Best Practices 13 – Patience with Unit EconomicsMark Roberge, Chief Revenue Officer at Hubspot, recently shared with me how he instills patience in unit economics in his teams. 1. Adopt before you buy – develop a bottoms up product that people can try out and ultimately upgrade themselves without having to contact sales or support. 2. Product before people – focus on improving the product before hiring additional customer support or salespeople. The product has to stand on its own. 3. Individu… (read more)

Sam Altman (President at Y Combinator) Founder Depression – Sam AltmanMost of the founders I know have had seriously dark times, and usually felt like there was no one they could turn to. For whatever its worth, youre not alone, and you shouldn’t be ashamed. You’ll be surprised how much better you feel just by talking to people about the struggles youre facing instead of saying we’re crushing it.

Herbert Lui (Creative Director, Wonder Shuttle) Why you should take a walk at 3pm | A Founder’s NotebookEvery day at around 3PM, my brain gets weary. I’ve tried numerous techniques to counter this challenge. Yet I’ve found one technique to be the most effective: going for a walk. The longest stroll I’ve taken is around 10 minutes, and I just wander around the block.

Fred Wilson (Co-Founder and Partner at Union Square Ventures) Get Lucky – AVCSo it was with interest that I read this post about some research a psychologist named Richard Wiseman did on lucky and unlucky people. Wiseman concludes that luck (and unluck) is a function of state of mind (positive vs negative), being open minded, and trusting your gut. Here’s the money quote from the post: “My research revealed that lucky people generate good fortune via four basic principles. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance … (read more)

Fred Wilson (Co-Founder and Partner at Union Square Ventures) Write It Down – AVCIf you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night and thinking about work and not able to go back to sleep, I highly recommend the writing it down trick. It works well for me and I suspect it may work well for you too.

Fred Wilson (Co-Founder and Partner at Union Square Ventures) Getting Knocked Down – AVCI’ve never met a successful entrepreneur who didn’t get knocked down in the ring at least once or twice. I told him that you can read all you want and get all the advice and coaching that is available and you still will not learn the hard lessons that one has to learn to become best in class at what you do. I’ve come to the conclusion that you have to learn some things the hard way to really learn them well.

Bill Trenchard (Partner at First Round) 70% of Time Could Be Used Better – How the Best CEOs Get the Most Out of Every Day | First Round Review1. The seven-minute workout. It’s scientifically proven. The New York Times has spoken. You do 12 exercises in seven minutes and it works. 2. Take walking meetings. Almost everyone has one-on-one meetings. Suggest taking a walk instead of sitting in a conference room or a coffee shop. 3. Ask for a standing desk. Most offices now accommodate these requests. They’ve been proven to reduce risks of heart disease and cancer and boost mood and alertnes… (read more)

Ben Erez (Product at Breeze) 22 Mistakes I Made as a First Time Founder — ViabilifyI thought at the time that my personal life was separate than my work life, but that’s not true in entrepreneurship. When you’re building a company, the various parts of your life have a way of all meshing together into a think blend that doesn’t let you tell one part from the other.

Fred Wilson (Co-Founder and Partner at Union Square Ventures) Monday Morning Quarterbacking – AVCBeing the CEO of a highly public company (whether it is traded privately or publicly) is particularly hard. You are constantly getting criticized and talked about in the press/blogs/communities. I respect the people who take these jobs. And I root for them to succeed. It’s about the hardest job you can have.

Ben Erez (Product at Breeze) 22 Mistakes I Made as a First Time Founder — ViabilifyI would find myself pitching anyone from bartenders to my high school Chemistry teacher. I was seeking approval in all the wrong places and ended up trapped in an echo chamber where anyone who didn’t “get it” was immediately distanced by me. In hindsight, I should have embraced raised brows and let them stay raised. The energy is takes to pitch well is a precious and rare resource which must be spent only on very carefully chosen recipients.

Slava Akhmechet (Founder at RethinkDB) 57 startup lessonsEvery once in a while, get away. Go hiking, visit family in another city, go dancing, play chess, tennis, anything. It will make you more effective and make the people around you happier.

Fred Wilson (Co-Founder and Partner at Union Square Ventures) Gmail Meter – AVC tried out a new service this past week called Gmail Meter. It’s a free analytics service that tells you stuff about how you use Gmail. It is brought to market by the folks at ShuttleCloud, which does archive and data migration for cloud services. It’s a way for them to get to know folks who might become ShuttleCloud customers in the future.
I learned a few things. I get 6,470 legit emails a month from 1293 different senders. I send/reply to 2,6… (read more)

Sam Altman (President at Y Combinator) Startup advice, briefly – Sam AltmanBe decisive and act quickly. Instead of thinking about making a decision over the course of week, think about making it in an hour, and getting it done in the next hour.

Paul Graham (Co-Founder & Partner at Y Combinator) Startups in 13 SentencesDon’t get demoralized. Though the immediate cause of death in a startup tends to be running out of money, the underlying cause is usually lack of focus. Either the company is run by stupid people (which can’t be fixed with advice) or the people are smart but got demoralized.

Ron Friedman (Founder of ignite80, Social Psychologist) The Collaboration Paradox: Why Working Together Often Yields Weaker ResultsCollaborations breed false confidence. A study in Psychological Science found that when we work with others to reach a decision, we become overly confident in the accuracy of our collective thinking. Collaborations introduce pressures to conform. Studies show that group members tend to conform toward the majority view, even in cases when they know the majority view is wrong. Collaborations promote laziness. Ever been to a meeting where you’re the… (read more)

James Whittaker (Dintinguished Engineer and Technical Evangelist at Microsoft) The Anti Meeting Culture | JW on TechBuild an anti-meeting culture within your organization. Every meeting is useless until proven otherwise. Meeting organizers need to be put on notice: make this meeting meaningful, it’s your job.

Adam Grant (Wharton professor, NYT writer) 9 Productivity Tips from People Who Write About ProductivityIntentionally leave important tasks incomplete. We often race to finish assignments quickly so that we can move on to the next item on our list. [There is a] human tendency to ruminate over unfinished tasks, otherwise known as the Zeigarnick Effect. If you start a project and leave it unfinished, you’re bound to think about it more frequently than after it’s done. Instead of aiming to complete important tasks in one sitting, try leaving them inco… (read more)

Paul Graham (Co-Founder & Partner at Y Combinator) Economic InequalityOne of the most important principles in Silicon Valley is that “you make what you measure. ” It means that if you pick some number to focus on, it will tend to improve, but that you have to choose the right number, because only the one you choose will improve

Ben Horowitz (Co-Founder & Partner @ Andreessen Horowitz) The difference between a great company and a lousy company | A Founder’s NotebookIn good organizations, people can focus on their work and have confidence that if they get their work done, good things will happen for both the company and them personally. In a poor organization, people spend much of their time fighting organizational boundaries, infighting, and broken processes. They are not even clear on what their jobs are, so there is no way to know if they are getting the job done or not.

David Jackson (Founder, Seeking Alpha) Limiting decision fatigue | A Founder’s NotebookLimit decision fatigue. In decision making and psychology, decision fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual, after a long session of decision making. It is now understood as one of the causes of irrational trade-offs in decision making. For instance, judges in court have been shown to make less favorable decisions later in the day than early in the day. This is one of the reasons why it’s important to delega… (read more)

Tony Schwartz (CEO of The Energy Project) The Power of Stepping BackIts not possible to race between meetings and e-mail all day long, and simultaneously reflect on what all this frenzied activity is accomplishing. [I] offer all of our employees the opportunity to take time away from the office, simply for reflection. All I ask is that they come back afterward and share with their colleagues, in some form, whatever insights they’ve had.

Mark Suster (Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures) Do Less. More. | Bothsides of the TableSuccess often comes from doing a few things extraordinarily well and noticeably better than the competition and is measured in customer feedback, product engagement, growth in usage and ultimately in revenue growth. Do less. And do the things that you ARE doing better and with higher quality. Have a shorter to-do list with more things that are in the “done” category.

Lew Cirne (Founder & CEO at New Relic) Six chairs for an ideal meetingOne of the things I do on a quarterly basis is to review the standing meetings on my calendar, and every one of them ought to be able defend itself. The point is not to keep going to that meeting just because you always have to go. I think it’s a great practice to say, “OK, we meet every Thursday on this. Does it have to be these people every Thursday? Why?”

Matt Blumberg (Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer & Chairman @ Return Path) The Management Team – Guest Post From Matt Blumberg – AVCWe consistently work at improving our management skills. We have a strong culture of 360 feedback, development plans, coaching, and post mortems on major incidents, both as individuals and as a senior team

Fred Wilson (Co-Founder and Partner at Union Square Ventures) The Nature Of The Firm and Work Markets – AVCIn The Nature Of The Firm, Coase investigates why “individuals choose to form partnerships, companies and other business entities rather than trading bilaterally through contracts on a market.” Coase argues that transaction costs that make “trading bilaterally through contracts” expensive spur the organization of firms. And if those transaction costs could be eliminated, more individuals would choose to trade with each other rather than forming p… (read more)

Seth Godin (Founder at Yoyodyne Entertainment) Seth’s Blog: Paying the smart phone taxLike most things that are taxed, smart phones are often worth it, creating connections and giving us information when we need it. Perhaps, though, turning our phones off for six hours a day would be a useful way to cornering us into creating work we can’t live without.

Fred Wilson (Co-Founder and Partner at Union Square Ventures) Focus – AVCMany entrepreneurs and CEOs misjudge how many things they and their team can do well. It is always less than you think. I once was involved in a 75 employee company that was in three different businesses. It took a difficult financing to convince the CEO to exit two of those businesses, but it was the best move that company made. The next three years were a time of explosive growth for that company.

Paul Graham (Co-Founder & Partner at Y Combinator) Startups in 13 SentencesYou make what you measure. Merely measuring something has an uncanny tendency to improve it. If you want to make your user numbers go up, put a big piece of paper on your wall and every day plot the number of users

Paul Graham (Co-Founder & Partner at Y Combinator) Startups in 13 SentencesAvoid distractions. Nothing kills startups like distractions. The worst type are those that pay money: day jobs, consulting, profitable side-projects. The startup may have more long-term potential, but you’ll always interrupt working on it to answer calls from people paying you now. Paradoxically, fundraising is this type of distraction, so try to minimize that too

Sam Altman (President at Y Combinator) The Post-YC Slump – Sam AltmanWork on real work. Stay focused on building a product your users love and hitting your growth targets. Try to have a board and peers who will make you hold yourself accountable. Make the mistake of focusing too much on what matters most, not too little, and relentlessly protect your time from everything else.

Sam Altman (President at Y Combinator) How things get done – Sam AltmanA combination of focus and personal connections. Charlie Rose said this to Paul Graham, who told it to me. The Y Combinator version of focus is write code and talk to users. On the personal relationships part, most people eventually realize its hard to do really good things by yourself.

Sam Altman (President at Y Combinator) Startup PlaybookA surprising amount of our advice at YC is of the form just ask them or just do it. First-time founders think there must be some secret for when you need something from someone or you want to do some new thing. Just be direct, be willing to ask for what you want, and don’t be a jerk.

Joel Spolsky (CEO @ Stack Exchange) Software Inventory – Joel on SoftwareIn between each of these stages, inventory can pile up. For example, when a programmer finishes implementing their code (stage 3) they give it to a tester to check (stage 4). At any given time, there is a certain amount of code waiting to be tested. That code is inventory.
The “cost” of code inventory is huge.

Seth Godin (Founder at Yoyodyne Entertainment) Seth’s Blog: Prep, spec, fit and finishDinner at a fine restaurant is mostly cleaning, chopping, mise en place and service, not the part we see on the plate itself. And yet… We often get confused about which part is important, which is worth our time, which is the point of the exercise. Without a doubt, if the thing we built isn’t of high quality, don’t bother. But it turns out that all the other parts, the parts that we think might be beneath us, it’s those that matter the most. W… (read more)

Ben Erez (Product at Breeze) 22 Mistakes I Made as a First Time Founder — ViabilifyIn the process of building a startup, I found myself thinking sometimes about the long term vision and how what I was doing on a given day fed into the 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year vision. This was an inevitable result of all the stories you hear about people spending years building something before they “make it”. The problem with that long-term thinking is that it takes you out of the present and guess what? The present is the only place where … (read more)

Ron Friedman (Founder of ignite80, Social Psychologist) How to Spend the First 10 Minutes of Your DayAsk yourself this question the moment you sit at your desk: The day is over and I am leaving the office with a tremendous sense of accomplishment. What have I achieved?

Geoffrey James (a contributing editor for Inc.com, is an author of the award-winning blog Sales Source) How many hours per week should you work to maximize your impact? | A Founder’s NotebookConventional business wisdom is that there’s a positive correlation between long work hours and employee productivity. Instead, the opposite is true. It’s now known that long work hours reduce creativity by decreasing the amount of waking hours when the mind is at rest.

Shane Parrish (Curator of the popular Farnam Street Blog) 9 Habits You Need to Stop NowDo not answer phone calls from people you don’t know. Do not e-mail first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Do not check email constantly. Do not work more to fix being too busy. Do not expect work to fill a void that non-work relationships and activities should.